Saroj Nayak, associate professor at Rensselaer's Department
of Physics, Applied Physics and Astronomy, recently led a team on a research
project to compare the conductive properties of copper nanowires with that of
carbon nanotube bundles. The conclusion probably won't be much of a shock: CNT
bundles came out on top.

Rather than comparing the empirical data between the two
subjects, Nayak's team used the world's fastest university based supercomputer,
Rensselaer's Computational Center for Nanotechnology Innovations, to study
their quantum mechanical properties. While empirical measurements are fine for
research at a normal scale, the interaction of molecules, atoms, and some of
their building blocks are more accurately measured below the macro scale using
quantum mechanical observations.

The team's ultimate goal was to learn which material would be
better for microchip interconnects. Copper interconnects are quickly coming to
a choke point as chip cores continue their downward spiral. The current 45nm
technology is not predicted to be the final blow, thanks to things like high-k
metal interconnect gates. Some research suggests cores built
on 15nm technology are more than feasible.

However, replacing the copper that is currently used for
interconnects with a more efficient material would be a boon to chip makers and
designers, possibly allowing them to even further shrink the process.

Though CNT bundles look to be a promising new material for
microchips, there are still some ramifications to be dealt with before mass
production could start. An economical way to grow the bundles, as well as a
method to ensure the tubes themselves are 100% metallic will have to be found.
A more thorough understanding of the electrical properties of CNTs as
interconnects will be needed as well.

Nayak's groups' research will be featured in the March issue
of Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter.

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This article is over a month old, voting and posting comments is disabled

Of course. CNT still relies on electrons which can still leak and affected by charges.

Photons would not have that problem. However, building optical interconnects within a chip is really hard. Traditional transistors still relies on electrons. You somehow have to bridge the two, or build a photo-transistor.

CNT behaves a little bit differently (compared to metals) with electricity and electro-magnetic fields, as far as I'm aware. I DO agree that light would probably be faster unless the whole broadcasting & receiving of light signals adds some kind of delay/bottleneck...? IBM seems to have it going on with light interconnects, but they will probably limit that to commercial grade machines.